Beginning with criticism: An analysis of the first four volumes of Art South Africa

Art South Africa is currently the leading, professionally published art magazine in South Africa. The magazine plays an important role in the dissemination of art discourse and art news and is the only ongoing, printed forum devoted exclusively to South African contemporary art. In this paper I will be looking at Art South Africa to describe the type of art texts it presents and the particular position it has taken in the contemporary art world of South Africa. In doing this I will be analysing the magazine to register the types of writing and other information in formats such as art news, exhibition reviews, artist bios, interviews and even advertising. This paper will also be analysing selected texts to determine the key issues that are represented and the way those issues have been represented with a critical position. Looking at Art South Africa from many angles will show that criticality is one of the magazine’s ideological aims and though the magazine’s format changes over time, it has continually sought to engage its readers in critical discourse

Rational parametrization of conchoids to algebraic curves

We study the rationality of each of the components of the conchoid to an irreducible algebraic affine plane curve, excluding the trivial cases of the lines through the focus and the circle centered at the focus and radius the distance involved in the conchoid. We prove that conchoids having all their components rational can only be generated by rational curves. Moreover, we show that reducible conchoids to rational curves have always their two components rational. In addition, we prove that the rationality of the conchoid component, to a rational curve, does depend on the base curve and on the focus but not on the distance. As a consequence, we provide an algorithm that analyzes the rationality of all the components of the conchoid and, in the affirmative case, parametrizes them. The algorithm only uses a proper parametrization of the base curve and the focus and, hence, does not require the previous computation of the conchoid. As a corollary, we show that the conchoid to the irreducible conics, with conchoid-focus on the conic, are rational and we give parametrizations. In particular we parametrize the Limaçons of Pascal. We also parametrize the conchoids of Nicomedes. Finally, we show how to find the foci from where the conchoid is rational or with two rational components

Total Degree Formula for the Generic Offset to a Parametric Surface

We provide a resultant-based formula for the total degree w.r.t. the spatial variables of the generic offset to a parametric surface. The parametrization of the surface is not assumed to be proper.Comment: Preprint of an article to be published at the International Journal of Algebra and Computation, World Scientific Publishing, DOI:10.1142/S021819671100680

Characterization of Adherent Bacteroidales from Intestinal Biopsies of Children and Young Adults with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

There is extensive evidence implicating the intestinal microbiota in inflammatory bowel disease [IBD], but no microbial agent has been identified as a sole causative agent. Bacteroidales are numerically dominant intestinal organisms that associate with the mucosal surface and have properties that both positively and negatively affect the host. To determine precise numbers and species of Bacteroidales adherent to the mucosal surface in IBD patients, we performed a comprehensive culture based analysis of intestinal biopsies from pediatric Crohn's disease [CD], ulcerative colitis [UC], and control subjects. We obtained biopsies from 94 patients and used multiplex PCR or 16S rDNA sequencing of Bacteroidales isolates for species identification. Eighteen different Bacteroidales species were identified in the study group, with up to ten different species per biopsy, a number higher than demonstrated using 16S rRNA gene sequencing methods. Species diversity was decreased in IBD compared to controls and with increasingly inflamed tissue. There were significant differences in predominant Bacteroidales species between biopsies from the three groups and from inflamed and uninflamed sites. Parabacteroides distasonis significantly decreased in inflamed tissue. All 373 Bacteroidales isolates collected in this study grew with mucin as the only utilizable carbon source suggesting this is a non-pathogenic feature of this bacterial order. Bacteroides fragilis isolates with the enterotoxin gene [bft], previously associated with flares of colitis, were not found more often at inflamed colonic sites or within IBD subjects. B. fragilis isolates with the ability to synthesize the immunomodulatory polysaccharide A [PSA], previously shown to be protective in murine models of colitis, were not detected more often from healthy versus inflamed tissue

An Algebraic Analysis of Conchoids to Algebraic Curves

We study the conchoid to an algebraic affine plane curve C from the perspective of algebraic geometry, analyzing their main algebraic properties. Beside C, the notion of conchoid involves a point A in the affine plane (the focus) and a nonzero field element d (the distance).We introduce the formal definition of conchoid by means of incidence diagrams.We prove that the conchoid is a 1-dimensional algebraic set having atmost two irreducible components. Moreover, with the exception of circles centered at the focus A and taking d as its radius, all components of the corresponding conchoid have dimension 1. In addition, we introduce the notions of special and simple components of a conchoid. Furthermore we state that, with the exception of lines passing through A, the conchoid always has at least one simple component and that, for almost every distance, all the components of the conchoid are simple. We state that, in the reducible case, simple conchoid components are birationally equivalent to C, and we show how special components can be used to decide whether a given algebraic curve is the conchoid of another curve

Loss of N-WASP drives early progression in an Apc model of intestinal tumourigenesis

N‐WASP (WASL) is a widely expressed cytoskeletal signalling and scaffold protein also implicated in regulation of Wnt signalling and homeostatic maintenance of skin epithelial architecture. N‐WASP mediates invasion of cancer cells in vitro and its depletion reduces invasion and metastatic dissemination of breast cancer. Given this role in cancer invasion and universal expression in the gastrointestinal tract, we explored a role for N‐WASP in the initiation and progression of colorectal cancer. While deletion of N‐wasp is not detectably harmful in the murine intestinal tract, numbers of Paneth cells increased, indicating potential changes in the stem cell niche and migration up the crypt‐villus axis was enhanced. Loss of N‐wasp promoted adenoma formation in an adenomatous polyposis coli (Apc) deletion model of intestinal tumourigenesis. Thus, we establish a tumour suppressive role of N‐WASP in early intestinal carcinogenesis despite its later pro‐invasive role in other cancers. Our study highlights that while the actin cytoskeletal machinery promotes invasion of cancer cells, it also maintains normal epithelial tissue function and thus may have tumour suppressive roles in pre‐neoplastic tissues

Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein deficiency in innate immune cells leads to mucosal immune dysregulation and colitis in mice

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Immunodeficiency and autoimmune sequelae, including colitis, develop in patients and mice deficient in Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome protein (WASP), a hematopoietic-specific intracellular signaling molecule that regulates the actin cytoskeleton. Development of colitis in WASP-deficient mice requires lymphocytes; transfer of T cells is sufficient to induce colitis in immunodeficient mice. We investigated the interactions between innate and adaptive immune cells in mucosal regulation during development of T-cell-mediated colitis in mice with WASP-deficient cells of the innate immune system. METHODS: Naïve and/or regulatory CD4(+) T cells were transferred from 129 SvEv mice into RAG-2 deficient (RAG-2 KO) mice or mice lacking WASP and RAG-2 (WRDKO). Animals were observed for the development of colitis; effector and regulatory functions of innate immune and T cells were analyzed with in vivo and in vitro assays. RESULTS: Transfer of unfractionated CD4(+) T cells induced severe colitis in WRDKO, but not RAG-2 KO, mice. Naïve wild-type T cells had higher levels of effector activity and regulatory T cells had reduced suppressive function when transferred into WRDKO mice compared to RAG-2 KO mice. Regulatory T-cell proliferation, generation, and maintenance of FoxP3 expression were reduced in WRDKO recipients, and associated with reduced numbers of CD103(+) tolerogenic dendritic cells and levels of interleukin (IL)-10. Administration of IL-10 prevented induction of colitis following transfer of T cells into WRDKO mice. CONCLUSIONS: Defective interactions between WASP-deficient innate immune cells and normal T cells disrupt mucosal regulation, potentially by altering the functions of tolerogenic dendritic cells, production of IL-10, and homeostasis of regulatory T cells

Fluoromycobacteriophages for rapid, specific, and sensitive antibiotic susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Rapid antibiotic susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is of paramount importance as multiple- and extensively- drug resistant strains of M. tuberculosis emerge and spread. We describe here a virus-based assay in which fluoromycobacteriophages are used to deliver a GFP or ZsYellow fluorescent marker gene to M. tuberculosis, which can then be monitored by fluorescent detection approaches including fluorescent microscopy and flow cytometry. Pre-clinical evaluations show that addition of either Rifampicin or Streptomycin at the time of phage addition obliterates fluorescence in susceptible cells but not in isogenic resistant bacteria enabling drug sensitivity determination in less than 24 hours. Detection requires no substrate addition, fewer than 100 cells can be identified, and resistant bacteria can be detected within mixed populations. Fluorescence withstands fixation by paraformaldehyde providing enhanced biosafety for testing MDR-TB and XDR-TB infections. © 2009 Piuri et al

Activating WASP mutations associated with X-linked neutropenia result in enhanced actin polymerization, altered cytoskeletal responses, and genomic instability in lymphocytes

X-linked neutropenia (XLN) is caused by activating mutations in the Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein (WASP) that result in aberrant autoinhibition. Although patients with XLN appear to have only defects in myeloid lineages, we hypothesized that activating mutations of WASP are likely to affect the immune system more broadly. We generated mouse models to assess the role of activating WASP mutations associated with XLN (XLN-WASP) in lymphocytes. XLN-WASP is expressed stably in B and T cells and induces a marked increase in polymerized actin. XLN-WASP–expressing B and T cells migrate toward chemokines but fail to adhere normally. In marked contrast to WASP-deficient cells, XLN-WASP–expressing T cells proliferate normally in response to cell-surface receptor activation. However, XLN-WASP–expressing B cells fail to proliferate and secrete lower amounts of antibodies. Moreover, XLN-WASP expression in lymphocytes results in modestly increased apoptosis associated with increased genomic instability. These data indicate that there are unique requirements for the presence and activation status of WASP in B and T cells and that WASP-activating mutations interfere with lymphocyte cell survival and genomic stability